‘Idaho is going to force me out:’ What just happened in court for Meridian tiny-home owner
After a year and a half of waiting, attorneys for both the city of Meridian and Chasidy Decker met in court to argue their sides of a case that concerns a city law that bars people from living in tiny homes on wheels.
At stake for Decker, she said, is her ability to stay in the Treasure Valley.
“Ultimately what scares me the most is if this doesn’t go in my favor, unfortunately I am going to be left with no other option than to leave,” Decker told the Idaho Statesman after the hearing. “I cannot afford the rental prices here. Idaho is going to force me out of Idaho.”
In 2022, Decker, a native Treasure Valley resident, was told by a Meridian Code Enforcement officer to leave her tiny home on wheels, which she owns. At the time, Decker was renting space next to a private residence to park the home, and didn’t realize that living in it — while paying rent to her landlord, who lived in the home next door, and utilities — was against Meridian law.
After Statesman wrote a story about Decker’s impending eviction, the case caught the eye of the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm that says its goal is to end abuses of government power and secure people’s constitutional rights.
During Thursday’s hearing before state District Judge Jason Scott in Boise, both sides argued that there is no real dispute about material facts, and that each of them deserve a favorable ruling from Scott without a jury trial.
Decker’s case against Meridian is twofold. First, she argues that a city ordinance that prohibits someone from living in tiny homes on wheels within city limits is unconstitutional, because government has no legitimate interest in banning tiny homes. Second, she argues that Meridian Code Enforcement Officer Anthony Negrete, who told her she couldn’t live in her tiny home the day after the Statesman published a story about it, retaliated against her for speaking to the Statesman about her situation.
Retaliation case
Attorneys for the city asked Scott to dismiss the discrimination/retaliation portion of the case, because Negrete is not a defendant in the lawsuit and therefore cannot be charged with wrongdoing. But Decker’s lawyers said the city sent him to her home to tell her she had to leave.
“Officer Negrete was going back to the property that morning at the direction of the city,” said Bob Belden, Decker’s lawyer with the Institute for Justice.
Tiny home ordinance
Meridian’s attorney, Peter Thomas, asked Scott to find that Meridian’s ordinance was a result of legitimate city interest. He said the ordinance that prohibits Meridian residents living in a structure on wheels parked on private property exists for safety and infrastructure needs.
“The fire chief, Chief Joe Bongiorno, was very clear that he wanted to know that every occupied structure had its own address,” Thomas said.
He added that Decker’s arrangement would “impact water and sewer service.”
Belden countered that Thomas’ argument is not enough to warrant summary judgment, which is the judge ruling in the city’s favor without a trial. He said that as long as the ordinance was applied to Decker, the city has an obligation to find evidence that it makes sense to enforce the ordinance in her case. He said “they haven’t come forward with any evidence of that.”
Belden said that in June 2019, the city was fielding calls from people asking if they could live in mobile tiny homes.
“People want to live in these things,” he said. “They want to find places to live in them in Meridian.”
Referring to his summary brief to the court, Belden said that in June 2019, the city amended its ordinance to add tiny houses into the definition of RVs. He said city officials did this for simplicity, not for health, safety or aesthetic reasons, and did so “rather than find a way to make this low-cost form of housing available, like the local Land Use and Planning Act obligates the city to do.”
After a handful of questions, Scott said he would take the motion to dismiss the retaliation portion of the case under advisement and expected he would issue a ruling before April, when a trial is scheduled.
